Stoke are almost synonymous with long throws and cold nights so heads were turned when a Barcelona prodigy turned up.
The Potters were looking to establish themselves as a top ten Premier League side when then-manager Mark Hughes made an audacious move for Bojan Krkic in the summer of 2014.
To his surprise, and the rest of the world, the Spaniard agreed and so went ahead one of the strangest transfers in recent Premier League history.
But the now retired forward knew straight away that the Britannia Stadium felt just like home.
Talking to Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent on talkSPORT Drive, Bojan said: “In that summer, Stoke called me and the people that I asked about it said, ‘no you are crazy, why are you going there? They don’t play football!’
“And I said, ‘yeah but if they call me it is because they understand my qualities technically so I want to go and play in the Premier League, so let’s go’.
“For sure, it is one of the best choices that I made in my career. We had fantastic years playing fantastic football in the Premier League.
“Stoke as a club, it is a small club but it is a family club and the fans, for me, are the greatest that I have had in all the clubs I have played with.
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“Apart from Mark Hughes, Marc Muniesa was there and you know when you get a feeling and I felt that at Stoke. It felt it was the right place to be and play.”
Bojan had played for illustrious clubs before making the move to Staffordshire, starting out at Barcelona and bursting onto the scene at the same time Lionel Messi was making waves.
Stints at Roma, AC Milan and Ajax would follow before a permanent move to Stoke, swapping dressing rooms with players such as Messi, Thierry Henry and Xavi for Charlie Adam, Phil Bardsley and Peter Crouch, whose DJing skills have been questioned by the Spaniard.
Bojan added: “We finished ninth in the Premier League three years in a row, we had many good players; Marko Arnautovic, Xherdan Shaqiri, Stephen Nzonzi, Glenn Whelan.
“Then there is Ryan Shawcross, a great leader, fantastic professional, we had many good things in that dressing room that we changed the mentality of the club, so, yeah… Stokealona!
“[I still speak to] Ryan, Jon Walters as well, Muniesa of course. Peter Crouch was the DJ in that time and was not the best!
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“Crouchy, fantastic player, fantastic humour, I love Crouchy, honestly. But the music was not the best.
“I cannot describe, in Spain we are used to reggaeton, something that makes you feel happy. The music of Crouchy was more… I don’t know, chilled.
“Probably good music but not before a game!”
Having spent five years on Stoke’s books, with two of those years away on loan, Bojan left the club in 2019 to move to MLS side Montreal Impact.
A short spell in Japan with Andres Iniesta at Vissel Kobe would follow before hanging up his boots in March earlier this year.
Source link: https://talksport.com/football/1420281/stoke-peter-crouch-barcelona-bojan-krkic/
